move southerly direction which gave heavy rains and strong winds to New Zealand on December 21 and 22 and fully dissipated on late on December 23. Evan killed at least 14 people on Samoa and left behind severe damage. The US Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa David Huebner confirmed the United States had provided NZ$ 60,000 to the Samoan Red Cross for relief operations. New Zealand authorities sent NZ$ 50,000 on December 15, as well as the P-3 Orion plane to search for the missing fishermen. Two days later the New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully announced an additional NZ$ 550,000 was to be made available to the Samoan government, as well as the Samoan Red Cross and any agencies on the ground that might need it. Five additional New Zealand Red Cross workers were also sent to support local efforts. As the legislators prepared to receive initial assessments of the economic damage wrecked by Evan, the bill was expected to be at least NZ$ 200,000,000, and possibly rise as high as 300 million. Severe Tropical Cyclone Freda On December 26, RSMC Nadi reported that Tropical Disturbance 05F had developed within an area of low to moderate vertical windshear about 1075 km (670 mi) to the north of Port Vila, Vanuatu. During that day as the system moved towards the west, convection surrounding the centre and the general organization of the system increased, before RSMC Nadi reported that the system had developed into a tropical depression. During December 27, the depression started to move towards the southwest and the southern Solomon Islands, as convection surrounding the centre and the general organization of the system continued to increase. The system then passed near the Southern Solomon Islands early the next day, before the JTWC designated the depression as Tropical Cyclone 06P and initiated advisories on it as the system had become equivalent to a tropical storm. Later that day RSMC Nadi reported that the depression had become a category one tropical cyclone and named it Freda, as it continued to move towards the southwest and passed over Rennell Island. During December 29, Freda continued to move towards the south-southwest, crossed 160°E and briefly moved into the Australian region, before it started to move towards the south-southeast along the western edge of the subtropical ridge of high pressure and moved back into the South Pacific basin. During that day the